Rebecca hardly slept at all that night, worried for her sister's sake. Katherine had walked her home, and she had kept a straight face, pretended that she was okay while Katherine was around. She had managed to slip an easy lie to her parents when she arrived home without her sister, telling them that Elizabeth was staying the night at Katherine's to learn about journalism. Her parents were a little angered at the prospect of their daughter wanting to pursue a career, but it offered enough of an explanation that would keep her parents from questioning Elizabeth's absence further.

But that night, she laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, and she finally let her pain come through when she was alone. Her mind was full of images of what her sister could possibly be going through, and each one brought tears to her green eyes. They were so horrible that she desperately wanted to push the images out of her mind. As she laid there with salty tears rolling down her cheeks, she managed to keep herself from crying loudly, not wanting to bring attention to herself while she wished for the safe return of her sister. At three a.m., she finally cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, she was awoken by a knock on her bedroom door. The voice of her mother accompanied the knock, and her words rang through the large wooden door. "Rebecca, darling, Katherine is here to see you. Are you decent?"

Rebecca sat up in her bed, her dark hair knotted up slightly and her face tear-streaked. She attempted to sound as confident as possible as she replied, "Yes, Mother. Would you send her up, please?"

Within thirty seconds of her mother's quick reply, Katherine Pulitzer came through the door with a grin on her face and a newspaper in hand. "Look at this," she started as she unfolded the newspaper, then immediately noticed the condition her friend was in. "Oh, Becky..."

Rebecca turned away, shaking her head. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. What happened?" she asked her friend, trying to get the conversation away from her.

Katherine frowned and sat down on the bed beside her, then laid the newspaper out on the blankets. She knew Rebecca liked to hide her feelings the best she could, and she would often refuse to talk about them, even if it was blatantly obvious to everyone around her. So, even if she tried to talk to her, she likely wouldn't get any answers. But, maybe she could get some clues through a little game of give and take. "Well, the story made it to print. And here you are with the newsies, on the front page of the paper." She pointed to Rebecca's likeness, blending in perfectly in the group of boys. Elizabeth was there too, but all that really could be seen was her face, so it wasn't as identifiable as a young woman thanks to the image quality. If the twins' parents had stopped them and looked at the paper, they would never have noticed the two girls. Yet, there they were!

Rebecca scanned the photo and her eyes lit up just slightly, a sure sign of her feeling even a tiny bit better. She looked at her friend and commented, "Congratulations. I'm so proud of you, Kath." She leaned back in her bed and reached for a hairbrush that was residing on her bedside table just out of her reach. "I assume you want to go show this to the newsies, right?"

Katherine grabbed the hairbrush and handed it to her friend. "Well, of course I do," she started, "but not without you. You're as much of a part of this as I am, so you should be there too."

Rebecca scoffed, taking the hairbrush from Katherine. With an eye roll, she said, "That's a lie. Eliza and I...well, we're not a part of writing the story, getting the story out there. They probably want to see you and the story you wrote."

"Rebecca Josephine, take some credit and come along, please?" Katherine pleaded as Rebecca brushed her hair. "Please, just get dressed and come with me to the deli. The newsies are bound to be there."

The dark-haired girl thought about this for a moment, then kept brushing her hair. "Grab me a dress and I'll come. I just need to fix my hair," she replied after a minute of silence. Katherine nodded and stood, going to where Rebecca stored her clothes, but she was then stopped by another comment coming from the bed. "No, not from there."

"What do you want to wear?" Katherine inquired in response, turning around to look at her friend.

"Grab me that blue dress there."

The dress that Rebecca had pointed to was one of Elizabeth's, and it happened to be one of her favorite dresses. Generally, the twins didn't really share clothes. Their parents provided enough clothes for them that sharing was unnecessary. But, Rebecca didn't feel like following the normal path today. With a flash of a smile, Katherine nodded and brought the dress back over to the grateful girl, who picked up the pace to get ready to leave.

*****

Fifteen minutes later, the two girls were outside of Jacobi's, Katherine clutching the newspaper in her hand. The newsies, as Katherine predicted, were sitting at the tables inside, though Jack Kelly seemed to be missing. Neither of the girls had noticed him run away in the middle of the fight, too busy focusing on Elizabeth's situation. However, wondering about Jack was definitely not something that either girl had been planning on doing, so with a shared nod, they entered the room in silence.

There, the newsies were surprisingly quiet as well. Maybe they were recovering from the multitude of injuries that had been inflicted on them during the fight. But at the same time, it was kind of off-putting. Maybe they had decided to give up on all of this?

Rebecca spoke up, deciding to get their attention. "Good morning, gentlemen," she started, then looked over at her friend. "Katherine, would you get a load of these glum mugs?"

Katherine nodded, holding up her newspaper. "Why, can these really be the same boys who made the front page of The New York Sun?"

The boys didn't seem to believe her at first, with many boys filling the air with questions. Race strolled over to the girls and took the paper from Katherine's hands while adding, "Let me see." After scanning the front page, the boy's eyes widened in awe. "Well would you look at that! That's me!"

Jojo grinned when he heard Race's confirmation of the story. "Front page and ya ain't even dead!" he commented, while many other boys added murmurs of pride and excitement of their own.

Davey looked over at the two girls, an impressed smile on his face. "You got us in the papes?" he asked.

Rebecca strolled over to his side and rested a hand on his shoulder for a brief second. "No, you got yourselves in the papes."

As the boys again added awestruck comments, with some joking insults directed at some of their friends mixed into the conversation, Specs got the attention of the girls. "Hey, what else do you got?"

Katherine's face fell. She hadn't told this to Rebecca yet either, knowing that it would have upset her more. "Oh, well," she started, letting out a small sigh, "mine's the only story that ran. Pulitzer declared a blackout on strike news, so even I'm shut down now."

Rebecca groaned at this. "Of course he did. Why am I not surprised. Your f-," she started, then realized what she was about to say and stopped herself. "Your freedom of the press is being infringed upon by that man. How dare he."

Katherine gave her a look that telegraphed her gratefulness for Rebecca's cover, then spoke up. "Hey, I know they arrested Crutchie and Eliza. Did they get Jack too?"

"The Delanceys are spreading the story that he took it on the land at the first sight of the cops," Albert supplied, to Les's annoyance.

The little boy got up and looked Albert straight in the eye. "Jack don't run from no fight!"

Albert quickly managed to quiet him down just before Race made a declaration. "For jumpin' Jack's sake, can you stow his curiosity for long enough to drink in the moment? I'm famous!"

As the boys started debating about being famous and whether or not being famous would offer them anything, Rebecca and Katherine sat down next to Davey, with the former of the girls managing to paste on a smile to mask her thoughts.

While the boys were dreaming out loud, Katherine leaned over to Rebecca's side and started talking to her quietly. "Hey, Becky, do you want to talk about this?" Rebecca just shook her head in response, frowning slightly before her friend continued to speak. "Okay then. You don't have to talk, just listen then. I have an idea of how to make you feel a little better. If you're willing to wait until tonight, I think we could sneak up the fire escape after dark and see your sister and Crutchie. In the meantime, we can find out what happened to Jack, possibly. What do you say?"

Rebecca hesitated, which was fairly out of character for the girl who was usually fairly impulsive. But, after a little bit of time, she finally decided, "Okay. If you're willing to help me, then we can do it."

Katherine smiled at her friend, giving her a quick hug. "Of course I'm willing to help you," she replied. "You don't think I want to see your sister too? The three of us have been friends for as long as I can remember. Why wouldn't I want to see her?"

Rebecca let out a small laugh. "Good point."

Before the girls could say much more to each other, Davey spoke up, getting the attention of everyone in the room. Apparently he had an idea of what being famous could bring you. As he gestured to Katherine, who happened to be sitting next to him, he declared, "A regular beat for the star reporter."

This was a comment that Race apparently seemed to like more than the others. He pointed right at her and exclaimed, "Am-scray punk, she's the king of New York!"

Rebecca grinned at Katherine and pushed her up onto her feet. "Sounds about right," she mumbled in response.

Katherine grinned at this and replied to everyone, "Who'd'a thunk, I'm the King of New York!" With that, she got swept into the actions of the newsies, which left her friend alone in her seat.

Rebecca watched in silence, letting a fake smile form on her lips to pretend that she was still perfectly okay. But, as everything continued, she couldn't help but feel lonely. When she thought nobody was looking, she got up quietly and walked out the door of the deli and out onto the street. After letting a tear fall and wiping it away with her sleeve, she started off towards the Refuge. A part of her thought that it was a little too risky to try to see Elizabeth during the daytime, but she felt willing to try. She just didn't want to risk Katherine's safety by bringing her along, especially when the young reporter's words could be crucial to figuring all of this out.

She didn't know that somebody had noticed her leave. Through the window behind her, Davey had turned and watched her go. He debated whether or not to run after her and check on her, but then, when he saw her meet up with someone, he decided that Rebecca didn't need him there for support after all. With that, he turned around and rejoined the newsies, pasting a smile of his own on his face.

"Mr. Reid, what a pleasant surprise," Rebecca greeted with a hint of sarcasm in her voice as she looked up at the young man that had stopped her in the street. Any other time, she would have been glad to run into one of her oldest friends, but not right now.

Darcy laughed slightly, flashing a small smile down at her as he responded, "Well, I guess I should have seen a response like that coming, especially from you." He glanced around, noticing the lack of accompaniment. "Where's Eliza and Katherine? And what are you even doing down here anyway?"

Rebecca sighed. "I'm sorry, Darcy, but I really should go. I don't have much time to talk." She sidestepped around him and started walking away in the direction she originally picked, hoping that Darcy wouldn't try to stop her again.

Her wish wasn't granted. "Becky, at least let me accompany you wherever you're going," Darcy called after her, stopping the young woman in her tracks. "You know your father would prefer that to you wandering the streets of New York by yourself."

Rebecca didn't look back at first, silently deciding whether or not to allow him to come with her. Would Darcy even approve of what she planned on doing? What if Darcy told her father where Elizabeth was, or what the girls had been doing? Her father would kill her, or disown her, or something else entirely. Did she want to risk it? But, then again, if he was there, would she really be at risk of being taken? Darcy was a Reid, so he could just flaunt the My-father-owns-the-Trib card and get them both out of jail free. Snyder wouldn't dare take them if he knew their statuses.

After a minute of deliberation, Darcy had opened his mouth to speak, but Rebecca cut him off with a look back in his direction. "If I let you come with me," she started, "you have to promise not to tell my parents what I'm doing, and you can't question what I'm doing either." Her initial plan wasn't going to work with him around, but she had a new one that he could help with.

Darcy didn't hesitate. He quickly nodded in agreement as he explained, "You're my friend, Rebecca. I trust you, no matter what you're doing. So, what exactly are you doing?"

"First, I'm going to need some chalk."

*****

Ten minutes later, the two of them were in the alley beside the Refuge, hiding behind a dumpster to keep the goons from seeing them if they happened to look around. In Rebecca's pale hand, she clutched a long stick of white chalk that Darcy had regretfully taken from the distribution site's chalkboard. Their eyes were trained on the small windows that lined the upper walls of the building. It looked like a normal building to the average person, but to the poor souls who knew the truth, it took on a more sinister and almost prison-like appearance.

"I still can't believe everything you just told me. Eliza's in there? And you're helping with the strike?" Darcy whispered to his friend as he adjusted the hat on his head.

"You can't tell. But it's true," Rebecca replied. She leaned back against the brick wall behind her, then grinned a devious smile at her friend. "Hoist me up, will you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

Rebecca crossed her arms, careful not to allow the chalk to streak Elizabeth's dress. Confidently, she replied, "You heard what I said."

Darcy opened his mouth to protest, having a whole speech in mind about how inappropriate it was for a man to touch a woman to hoist her up like that, especially if the two were not courting. The speech was cut off before it started, however, due to a glare he received from the young woman. With a sigh, he replied, "Okay, alright. There's no point in fighting you, is there?"

"Of course there isn't," Rebecca replied with a smug grin on her own face. She turned around to face the wall and lifted her arms up so he could grab her waist.

Darcy sighed again and did as directed, carefully lifting her up so her feet dangled about a foot and a half above the ground. He grunted slightly, as he was definitely not used to lifting something like this. Though Rebecca was fairly petite for her age, it still was a little awkward.

Rebecca grinned and lifted her arm, and she started to write on the wall in big, clean letters. She prayed silently for this to be the right place to write it and that Elizabeth would see it. After about a minute of writing, Darcy's arms were shaking, but she was done anyway. Darcy set her down on the ground and rubbed his sore arms, while Rebecca just grinned in response. "We're done here. Let's go."

Darcy didn't question her. There was no point in it. So, they quickly and carefully exited the alley, making sure to avoid the potential stares of the goons.

Unbeknownst to them, after they left the alley, a young woman in a tattered dress appeared at the window. Her eyes landed on the chalk writing on the wall and a smile formed on her lips before she turned around and walked away, clutching a book to her chest.

Miss you, E. See you soon. - R